Take the Path of Beauty

Connection with Surroundings

Harmony sits on the sidelines of chaos until beauty shows up as its stabilizer, peace offering, and centerpiece. The great equalizer to a harmonious life is inside the feminine urge to make things beautiful…special…meaningful…a way to connect us to our past, our ancestors, and pave the way for the future.

The beauty of nature is proof of God and it’s natural for us to want to emulate that in our own body and home. 

Beauty is what captures you and leads your curiosity, not curiosity itself, but its inspirational muse….a song, an experience, a landscape…..the great bridge and connector….Beauty!

When beauty is present the nervous system relaxes and the inclination for kindness steps in. In this aspect, our body, our soul, knows and shares a deeper truth of what beauty is, when it is present and how it affects us individually and as a collective.

I remember my grandmother always seemed to be changing things in the house…she’d re-paint, change the pillows, change the curtains…it was always something.

At first, I thought maybe she was bored.

Then I thought what a waste of money.

I wondered why this was so important to her, but never asked.

I quietly observed.

Then, over time, I recognized this in me….and it took me on a path where I began to see the importance of creating beauty in our surroundings.

In a way, this tugged at my desire to study psychology and Feng Shui, only later would I see just how connected they are to one another.

My studies of the subconscious mind were intertwined with my own feminine pulse to make things beautiful, to make a house a home.

I remember times when I had no money and lived paycheck to paycheck, but I found a way to make my studio apartment beautiful, for me. I bought pieces of furniture at goodwill and I painted everything until it was just how I wanted it. I turned trash to treasure before it was cool because it was the only way to come home at the end of the day and sit myself down in peace…and beauty.

I began to see that the urge to beautify our surroundings is spiritual, its feminine, it’s softness, it’s the human way of making a nest in the way birds make a perfectly shaped nest for their own. When we are living in accordance with natural law, when we are spiritually fulfilled and life is held in reverence, beauty is present. That has never been more evident than now. Tyranny grows as our landscape degenerates around us, we call things art that is without substance, care, or heart… we celebrate function over form, we forget what nature is quietly, but boldly, showing us…that beauty gives us breath, life, truth, purpose…freedom.

The way in which we beautify our surroundings is a form of devotion to God.

Your home is an altar for your life.

The inclination to want to tidy up before people come over is not always from a place of embarrassment to things not being perfect, but a form of giving to another by making their experience pleasant and meaningful when they enter our spaces, a form of respect.

I believe the growing popularity of shows like HGTV and DIY YouTube channels is really proof of a greater longing for beauty, and thus deeper connection to Spirit, to something greater, to work with our hands in a tangible output of creating beauty, of showing gratitude. We’re starving for true wealth, the kind that comes in texture and refinement, deliberate touch, thoughtful colors and moving language. Men build, women beautify, in the most simplistic form of course, but it’s innate, we need both function and aesthetic for balance.

When we tap into true beauty, NOT the superficial definition esteemed by the world, but something from the inside out, we tap into greater consciousness.

For myself, I’ve started to buy nicer things, less things, but nicer. Nicer doesn’t mean more expensive, but more intentionally chosen. I like expensive things, but I also like vintage shops, farmer’s markets, handmade marketplaces to find unique treasures of beauty and soul, crafted adornments for the home that speak to life, forgotten objects awaiting a new start…things that remind me of that which I want to allow into my sphere, and a form of spiritual nourishment that can only come from casting your gaze upon beauty and adorning yourself and your home with carefulness….if you drink out of a beautiful cup or a plain one, the beautiful one feels better because it’s infusing your mind AND the water with delicate allure, positivity through beauty.

True beauty isn’t about materialism or consumerism, it’s about selecting that which enhances the space, lights you up when see, or use, it…for objects carry energy, energy from others and that which we imbue. When we take the time to create, to exemplify beauty any way that we can, we show respect to the Universe, it is a form of living thanks-giving.

In the same token it’s why we like to hold on to things that aren’t feeding us in a positive way, the energetic tie to a loved one or a negative memory…but when it is time for it to go, it must go or it will keep you stuck…I think my grandmother knew this, the ever changing landscape of nature and the seasons is part of us, as we too are nature…and our surroundings long to be recognized as such. In doing so, we can work with our environments to support us on our path, why not make it beautiful?

This path connects us with the Divine because it allows us to create a canvas of our life, what I find supportive and beautiful, you may not….it is an individualistic expression and co-creative manifestation always taking place behind the walls of our homes.

The statement, cleanliness is next to Godliness, is an oversimplification of the greater truth, that beauty is a desire for awe, for peace, for safety, for connection.

When we bring the feminine essence of beauty as an adornment into our homes, we honor the feminine, nature, and the gift of Divine inspiration.

When we realize that we both influence the environment around us AND are influenced by it, the yearning for a nourishing view reveals itself.

When I work with a client, I step beyond intuitive or traditional feng shui and into the mind of the home, for it has its own energetic pulse speaking to you in symbols, in objects, in art…the walls talk whether you hear them or not.

Making a house a home is not about buying the most expensive things, keeping up with the jones’s décor, it’s not to prove something nor to follow the latest trend, it’s an opportunity to create, to get to know yourself by learning what you like and don’t, what feeds you and what drains you, what is helping and what is hurting.

It’s a form of healing and energy work that is so incredibly important yet so overlooked to the role it really plays in our lives and that doesn’t seem by accident.

Our society has become so cookie-cutter, so grey, everything is the same, but what do you want? What lights you up? What supports YOU? What nourishes YOU?

When we begin to recognize the vast influence of our environments on our mind, body and soul, we can choose to fill it with that which is enlivening…alive… it’s not about perfection.

Maybe you find an old painting or make one yourself, something created by the hands of a living man or woman…not a machine.  This may seem subtle but with the amount of time we spend in our homes, it’s incredibly important!

To support art, is to support that which is living…like an old book with words that make us feel something because the soul of the writer was drawn onto the page in a story that draws us in via its resonance.

The feminine urge to make a house a home, to change the curtains when they no longer speak to your soul, paint the walls when the colors of life are ready to transform into another story is a calling to truth, an expression of love…because drapes are symbolic just like your front door…it’s so much more than a piece of fabric, after all, your walls watch you and you watch them…. what do they say?

My grandmother likely viewed her home as a garden, new flowers need to bloom…. not be overhauled, but grow with us as we grow, simplicity of tiny changes have big blooms of impact and choosing objects of nourishment and beauty to bring in means we consume less but with a focus on the effects of our health in relation to the environment and how we interact with it.

Moving to an old farmhouse that needed lots of work and had hidden concerns covered up by the previous owners has led me to a new way of understanding my own craft.  Like the Japanese art of repairing broken things with Gold to make them more beautiful, so too are the broken things in our lives able to be made beautiful when we heal them.

It’s also helped me realize how all my life I have found beauty in broken things or things not normally seen as beautiful, like a spider web or broken piece of glass I found on the ground. Sometimes the mess is beautiful because it shows you are trying. Like a child that draws on the wall with crayons, it ruined one thing but created another.

I know when I’m in despair, the one thing that gives me hope is beauty, a sunset, a sunrise. Maybe I’ll look at it from another angle, maybe I’ll sit in the grass and stare at the stars, but it’s my heartfelt connection to something outside that reflects the inner-state, the heart reaching beyond the cavity of the chest and still being able to breathe.

Everyone talks about going within, just go within, but when times are dark, the loveliness of something beautiful can help you reignite your zest for life to keep going.

We must also look at things beyond utility, for it is when we leave out beauty the function fades into apathy.

The environment and objects we encounter are extensions of us, extensions of you, an emanation, animism, if you use a more beautiful fork, not just a utilitarian utensil, the way you eat changes, the way you feel changes, the way your guests enjoy food changes, the way you savor life changes, the world changes.

If you drink water out of handmade pottery, the way it feels in your hands changes, the frequency programmed into the water changes, the energy changes, maybe the whole day changes, it’s like an extra blessing…the water absorbs differently, taste different…better.

If you fill your home with enriching colors, books, objects that speak to your SOUL then you thrive more than if paying it no mind.

This affects animals too, how are the animals doing in your house, are the birds singing outside the window?  Does everyone feel warm, safe, and loved?

Beauty from its purest form, a heartfelt center where awe meets the mundane, where silver linings are seen amongst disastrous scenes, where imperfectness finds the perfect viewer, where care and attention give way to gratitude and blessings…this is a kind of beauty the world really craves…far beneath the definition that haunts magazine pages and movie screens.

Beauty is an invitation to morality, to cultural integrity and a conscience of both output and choice.

In its shadow beauty can be merely a lustful allure to satiate what is visible, but this is not its true role. When this happens it becomes the scapegoat for hedonistic pleasure but it is not beauty that made one lose control of desire, but desire itself that strayed too far from discipline…true beauty is always good, not a drug for numbing out, but the opposite, a gateway to greater witness of the splendor of being alive.

From far away travels to your back yard, it’s beauty that drives us and behind that drivers seat is a common thread too often forgotten.

Beauty pageants and even the false inclusivity of clothing companies to be portrayed as virtuous in allowing variety in models aesthetic to glorify the digital pages of their company is an inversion of true beauty, an exploitation by means of only focusing on the shell, not the inner richness of the individual. Mannequins for selling sameness on different figures…explotation labeled as diversity, advertising. What happened to our society? I think we need to bring back hats and gloves, lime colored casserole dishes infused with printed roses and little things that add that extra touch.

It’s no coincidence the rooms-to-go decor in a box, robo-like homes mirror fast fashion.

A tree blossoms, fruits, becomes full knowing its beauty will transform as winter comes and takes pause.  Its beauty doesn’t fade, just transforms.

We must remember that we are both material and spiritual, they are not separate.  The more we move away from the material or only see it inside the consumerist machine of needing far more than we actually need, the more we forget that in balance, it has a magical and poignant place in our lives.

When the true feminine is revered the world is more beautiful, when the world is more beautiful, there is more love and peace. Obviously this has been gravely tainted with the hijacked feminist movement.

Beauty heals in the same way linen sheets heal, the unexplainable beauty of the fabric holds a high frequency bringing forth greater rest and replenishment….to invest in one set of linen sheets is to invest in your health and well-being. We’re drawn to beautiful things, and likely a contributing factor in excessive consumerism, because our lives miss beauty.

It's funny because as I’m letting my gray hair grow out, I’ve had men say to me, don’t do it, it will make you look old, but that is their fear not mine. It’s proof that the wisdom of the feminine beauty is not always seen as it matures, just like our homes mature and settle in, cracks are formed and the paint peels but the exquisite beauty comes from a house lived in, really lived in….a house that gets messy, a house that holds doors open for dancing parties and excitement in yelps as one runs down hallways…as do unbearable collapses into a fetal position pouring tears as if to cleanse the floor beneath….and the soul….the house grows wise, too.

In a box-tox(ic) world where youth is all that is revered as beautiful, it’s time we mature and recognize the limitation this squeezes us into. This discounts all other forms of beauty and leaves us where we are now, in a collective noose of disconnection, loneliness, and masks hiding our true selves….this clearly affects the environments, personalities and skills that add the glorious touches of unique and individual fingerprints into our shared experience and everything in it….instead it’s all about “appearances” and “profit.”

We must not only learn to cultivate beauty, to create, but to comprehend it, to know how to recognize it beyond the eyes, deeper than the senses. Our capacity to hold and settle for nothing less than that which is beholden of beauty, is our capacity to stand in the awe of the all and be absorbed in the Divine wisdom while simultaneously coming to grips with our place inside its picture…even on the ugliest of days.

The sun shines light on the landscapes of our lives, are they flourishing in beauty or falling into decay?

The moon reveals what hides in the shadows, is there a deeper love beneath the business of living or has the door darkened and the nightlight gone out?

Beauty holds a secret…. the key to authenticity…. the key to healing…. the key to helping…. if you want to change the world, just BE-U…. let the Beaut(i) abound from a spirit of goodness.

It’s no wonder the system wants everything sterile, cold, lifeless, ugly….it knows the power beauty holds…and beholds…. that the very gaze of opportunity unto a vast sea, over a deep valley, into the light seeping through cracks in a forest path…. gives inspiration, fuels the energetic field and ignites purpose for being, awe for seeing and presence…. the present of presence.

Our world is suffering, it is shown in the lack of beauty…. vehicles, art, homes, architecture, fashion…all losing its lifeforce as humanity loses its own... exquisite details turned into metal boxes, vibrant colors or carved natural materials turned into…well, metal boxes…hand written notes now typed in…. metal boxes…you get the drift.

One by one we return culture and the richness of living by recognizing the importance of beauty.

Make a beautiful home, make a beautiful life.

Take care of your home it takes care of you.

Connect to beauty. Be adorned. Adorn, not just with material things, but with our connection to nature, to those around us we love,…I remember as a child making clover necklaces and crowns and wearing them all day while playing barefoot…even children know without thought how to make life beautiful….for this beauty makes life special and us humans forget how special it is all too often…this helps us remember.

For the feminine, adorn yourself AND your home, dance at the altar of gratitude and give way to the ritual of letting your expression shine in, not only yourself, but your environment.

The way of beauty enriches the soul, magnifies blessings and helps us focus on purpose and individual gifts given to us each that in turn helps us bless others…. but when we deny this, we end up in a production-oriented cult-ure where the creative essence of the Divine fingerprint is stamped out.

Someone who paints houses for a living is doing God’s work to me, noble, for one need not be a painter in the sense of an artist that oil pants or watercolors on canvas to see how each contributes to the much larger canvas of our existence, our homes, our walls…all of it matters…(matter matters)…it’s the feminine touch longing to be seen, to return a sense of harmony.

Beauty doesn’t always have to be ornate either, it can be simple, it can be beautiful materials, colors, textures, layers, photographs that evoke happy memories, gifts that foster times of love in action, smells that heighten memory, book covers that invite curiosity, lighting that warms and soothes (not the new LEDs, ugh)….so much of the new is so harsh, jagged, sterile, like plating that peels, not from use but from cheap covers to emote the deception of beauty via a toxic veil that isn’t held in value, that holds no value..that is ugliness personified by lost souls going through the motions of life, but not really living…assembly lines for the masses instead of carefully crafted by the individual.

You can find a true silver-plated bowl with genuine value at the thrift store but pay ten times that for something much lower in quality in our modern age…. why?

I think a lot comes down to standards When we accept the lowest standard, that’s what we get. When we spend hard earned money on crap, we get a world of crap.

Beauty changes the inside and the outside because it is the way of the heart.

Priority of the soul over pleasure gives both for the seeking of beauty is the seeking of truth, a treasure of sublime undertaking, emotionally enriching and fulfilling…beauty gives meaning to life.

Beauty also changes behavior for the better because when you enter a room that reflects care, you can’t help but want to exhibit that same care back.

When the scent of fresh blooms fills a room, it brings beauty to the sense of smell.

When the field of flowers are ripe for picking, it brings beauty to the soil and eye of the beholder.

When the edible flower petals top off a farm fresh salad, it titillates the fancy of taste and the bloom blooms in curious flavors upon the tongue.

When bees buzz among the wildflowers, not only is it a beauty to witness but the buzzing sound soothes the nerves and delights the Spirit.

Beauty activates our senses, enlivens our mood, heightens our awareness and is a worthy endeavor far more useful than so many distractions vying for our attention.

Beauty heals hearts and healed hearts heal …oh so many things!

What if we made each day a little bit more beautiful with how we interact in the environment, with what we create, what aesthetics we choose, what objects we hold dear, and what we’re manifesting by the subconscious influence of our surroundings?

What if the answer lives in beauty…by BEingYoutiFULL You!

May your home be beautiful
May your life be beautiful
May you find beauty in unlikely places
May you create something beautiful
….Not according to anyone else….but your own heart.

Deep gratitude to my grandmother for showing me the signifigance of beauty in home and hearth, in love and heart, in every little thing... (Miss you nannie)

What I’ve witnessed the past 4 years has made me lose faith in humanity, but, I’m still standing, trying to fix things in my life, in my home, and so, in a way, I guess it’s beauty that has given me that hope….and nature, but then, aren’t those intertwined? Seems so….and if ever any of us want to change the world, we can start by making our own lives a thing of beauty.

With love and beauty everlasting…

~ Angela